Money approved for the Winter Wonderland by the Apportionment Board will be returning to the reserve account.

Conflicting figures were presented for the Winter Wonderland resolution that will be voted on during the Student Senate meeting tonight.

Student Body President Cole Rogers gave AB a figure of $9,915 during his Jan.17 presentation, but he later gave the senate a proposed budget of $9,365.

“When I found out, I was a bit panicked, but I felt better as soon as I realized it was for less money,” said Leah Pietraszewski, AB chairwoman and student vice president for business affairs.

Rogers said a line item in his PowerPoint presentation was accidentally added twice and a correction was made before both presentations.

“I made the corrections before the AB meeting, but I must have brought up the wrong saved presentation to AB that night and that was my mistake, and I never even noticed it while I was giving the presentation to AB,” Rogers said.

Pietraszewski said AB’s budget tracking would not be affected because the senate controls the amount of money released by AB and the miscue would solve itself by authorizing the lower figure.

“It wasn’t a real big issue,” Pietraszewski said. “It was more like ‘Oh no, we have to (somehow) go back and fix this.'”

“The bill that is being presented to senate is all the money that I need, and there will not be any changes made at the meeting, and the other $550 will just roll back into the reserve account,” Rogers said.

The senate will vote on the resolution today, after it passed AB 7-1 with two abstentions Jan. 17.

Rogers said he wants to create a tradition in which students can unite under festivities and become exposed to their student representation.

However, AB member Eric Wilber expressed concerns of Student Government competing with the University Board for extensive event programming.

He was one of the two members who abstained during the AB vote. AB member Ashley Nolan was the only vote against it.

“Don’t get me wrong; the event was creative,” Nolan said. “However, it lacked a justification of the Student Government’s mission, which is clearly stated to ‘maintain academic freedom, academic responsibility, student rights and to foster the recognition of the rights and responsibilities of students to the University and Community.'”

-Opinions Editor Nicole Weskerna contributed to this story.

Rick Kambic can be reached at 581-7942 or at rwkambic@eiu.edu.